Randiv didn't bowl badly at all, he was just played quite well. And toward the end the ball was getting we and spinning it was hard. You could argue that Herath which his subtle variations in flight and pace might have fared better, but Ashwin wasn't bad. MSD, Kohli, Gambhir were just too good.

In fact, having to replace Mathews with 2 seamers who could bat probably didn't hurt. Had SL really played 3 spinners, and elected to bat - wouldn't the dew factor hamper the 3rd spinner at least as much as the 2 best spinners in their squad?

If we say Kapu replaced Silva and Randiv replaced Herath then.....

Replacing Mathews with 2 seamsers meant they had to drop Mendis.
I'd say that hurt.

Replacing Mathews with 2 seamsers meant they had to drop Mendis.
I'd say that hurt.

Was Herath considered a better spinner than Mendis? I'd say SL picked their two best spinners and Mendis was not considered one of them by coach & captain (as opposed to selectors), at least not against a side that plays spin well.

In the spin department - Mathews' injury gave the coach & captain a chance to assert their preference in spinners, more than anything else.

No way it took two seamers to replace him. Can almost say Perera came in for him 1:1 and didn't do too badly with the bat...

The other changes were very voluntary, to go with less spinners and to change the mix of spinners involved. Unless of course someone says they'd have played with Mathews, two seamers and three spinners (in which case he case he did not do much with the bat either to go down that path)

There was a lot of talk in the commentary that the subcontinent teams only wanted to play two spinners against subcontinental opposition because they supposedly play the slower bowlers better than the seamers.

Indian did it too, the leaving out of Ashwin for Sreesanth nearly as daft as the Mendis omission, but just about got away with it because Patel's a much better #2 seamer than anything SL had.

"The PFA does not represent players when they have broken the law and been convicted on non-football matters."- Gordon Taylor in 2009 following Marlon King's release after a prison sentence for sexual assault & ABH

Mendis averages 19 in ODIs (19 FFS!!) and gets dropped for the final FOR A BLOKE WHO WASN'T IN THE SQUAD after playing like the gun he is all tournament, because of a perception that India play him well.

This decision is going to look more and more bizarre as time goes by

The way I see it Kapugedera/Silva was pretty meh (both crap), Kulasekera was a swap for Herath (as those two seem to have been fighting for a spot most of the tournament, and arguments can be made for both depending on pitch conditions) and Perera came in for Matthews as he's the next closest thing to an all-rounder.

Yeah, fully agreed. Randiv for Mendis was a dire call; Kapu for Silva was confusing and inconsistent but not necessarily damaging.. but the other changes were fine IMO.

Rejecting 'analysis by checklist' and 'skill absolutism' since Dec '09

Something I posted in the match thread... Some of it is very much relevant here I guess...

Sri Lanka played excellent cricket but were outclassed a bit. Sanga was being nice saying even 350 wasn't enough but with their attack, even 300 might have been enough. Their inability to stay positive with their best bowlers really bites them in the back side. I can understand saving Malinga and Murali for powerplays when bowling first but honestly, taking Mallinga off after he got Sachin was just terrible terrible captaincy.. A 6 over spell for Malinga there and if he had broken through two more guys in our middle order, it would have been an easy game for SL.. I have said it before, they have champion players but they can't play like champions and it always hurts them.. They have to start thinking more positive and in terms of bowling their best bowlers for longer spells up front. At the moment, their entire tactics in cricket seem to revolve around choking and stangulating the opposition into mistakes but to be champs, you gotta go out there and win matches on your own and cannot always sit and wait opposition to make mistakes or even goad them into making mistakes.. It is high time Sanga or their next captain realizes that. Still a great final and a great tournament.

We miss you, Fardin. :(. RIP.

Originally Posted by vic_orthdox

In the end, I think it's so utterly, incomprehensibly boring. There is so much context behind each innings of cricket that dissecting statistics into these small samples is just worthless. No-one has ever been faced with the same situation in which they come out to bat as someone else. Ever.

Couldn't disagree more here. Mendis had a superb World Cup, Randiv isn't even a first choice bowler for Sri Lanka, and with good reason. Drops it shorter more than O'Keefe. Though admittedly, I didn't see him bowl last night.

Don't let Migara know that.. He thinks that guy is the best ODI spinner in the world..

Mendis averages 19 in ODIs (19 FFS!!) and gets dropped for the final FOR A BLOKE WHO WASN'T IN THE SQUAD after playing like the gun he is all tournament, because of a perception that India play him well.

This decision is going to look more and more bizarre as time goes by

The way I see it Kapugedera/Silva was pretty meh (both crap), Kulasekera was a swap for Herath (as those two seem to have been fighting for a spot most of the tournament, and arguments can be made for both depending on pitch conditions) and Perera came in for Matthews as he's the next closest thing to an all-rounder.

It is more than just "perception" to be honest, but I don't think you have followed any of the 93293457928 ODIs recently between India and SL..

SL, IMO, have enough "champion" material players (or at least had, in the past 4 or 5 years) to be a champion team but never allow themselves to be that coz of their dire negative outlook towards the game and stupid captaincy... For starters, Sanga seems way too eager to show himself off as some brainy cricketing intellect and hence HAS to keep making left field decisions... And their entire bowling plan seems to revolve around getting one or two early with Malinga and/or Murali and then hope and choke the batting side. AT times it works, esp. against individual batsmen like SEhwag or Gilchrist and not givng them what they want and forcing them to mistakes, but sometimes the old style of getting your best bowlers bowling at crucial times is great too. Why can't Malinga ever bowl a 6 over first spell like most strike bowlers do for their team? Why can't Murali ever bowl in a powerplay regularly when spinners with half his talent almost always do? They are just way too NEGATIVE and almost always afraid of things going wrong for them to be a champion side. They will continue to be good and keep crushing minnows and the bottom level sides and even pull off wins against the best but honestly, I juz do not see them being the best in the world which they can be, coz of all this negativity in the way they play cricket. They are just afraid of someone playing THE innings against them or someone bowling THE spell against them and in the effort to guard against that, they almost always miss the opportunity to do THE spell or THE innings themselves... They get some crazy comfort knowing that even though the opposition is having a good partnership going, they can get Malinga and Murali to bowl 8 of the last 10 and so choke the opposition to a defeat but why do you need that when you can get them out in the first 10 or 15 itself?

I agree that Sanga's captaincy is pretty dire when the pressure is on, I can't help but think that the decision to include 4 new players in a final would have largely been taken by him and it probably has to go down as one of the most dumb decisions in the history of international cricket.

Having players like Samarweera, Silva in the squad ahead of blokes likes Chandimal or Kandambi was a negative decision to start of with, but in the final axing Mendis, Herath in favour of Kulasekara and Randiv was extremely lame.

Sri Lanka were negative for most of the tournament and they were just lucky that their top 4 batsmen had such a great tournament otherwise they would have really struggled to reach this far.